"Policy Exchange," reports The Telegraph, "calculated that the cost of green taxes, surcharges and other levies on energy will go from £5.7 billion this year to £16.3 billion in 2020. The increase will add £40 to the average household gas bill and £8 to an electricity bill, according to data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Household energy bills are increased by a number of Government environmental policies, including the Renewables Obligation and other levies applied to energy usage to fund low-carbon power generation. Energy companies also face charges for schemes including the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, costs which are then passed on to customers."

Simon Less, Policy Exchange’s head of environment and energy, commented:

“The funding for these policies may come through energy bills, rather than the tax man, but it is a tax, and an increasingly large one paid by individual households and firms. Its scale makes it even more important that this money is used in the most efficient way possible.”

As the Daily Mail reports, the burden of these taxes is likely to fall most heavily on the poor.